VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, has reshaped its marketing department with the announcement that Philip Taylor has been appointed as Head of Marketing.
Taylor, who has been VisitBritain’s Head of Digital for the last 20 months, consolidates the marketing division’s lead roles and comes following the promotion of Joss Croft to become the organisation’s Marketing Director.
Taylor is a significant appointment for the organisation as it looks to strategically unite its marketing and digital teams and build on the global profile attained during 2012, where the London Games and The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee captured the world’s imagination.
VisitBritain is busy rolling out of the next phase of its GREAT marketing campaign, focussing on 21 key inbound markets to help ensure the unprecedented publicity is converted into real visits. This sees a high profile brand campaign to maintain this interest in Britain, as well as a direct response campaign with a range of special offers being unveiled, designed to increase visitor numbers to Britain and building a secure future for the UK’s tourism industry.
Joss Croft, Marketing Director at VisitBritain said: “This appointment is in line with what we are trying to do across our global marketing campaign. Phil brings extensive expertise to the role, having worked in senior positions across the industry and I look forward to working with him to help broaden the GREAT campaign internationally.”
Philip Taylor said: “This exciting new role will bring marketing and digital communications together and proves that good content is the fuel that powers all we do. Integrating digital into marketing focuses all our activity on inspiration, motivation, conversion and sharing our work on a global basis.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to build on the solid foundations of our GREAT campaign, as we look to entice an extra 9 million overseas visitors a year by 2020. While we have had a truly memorable 2012, we need to consolidate on that exposure and ensure that the heightened interest in Britain is converted into bookings by people keen to experience everything that we have to offer.”
Prior to joining VisitBritain, Taylor had previously been Marketing Manager at SeaFrance and MD of TravelMonty.com, an online travel start-up. He also held roles with Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines and BP Travel Marketing.
